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Batman Eternal Vol 1 11
The two had grown apart long ago, when Alfred agreed to take up his father's role as the caretaker to the Wayne Family. He had gone from being a military doctor to a butler, and he had abandoned his own family to do it. When he tries to confront her, she angrily speaks her mind and trumps down the stairs, opening her wound in the process. Elsewhere, at the Gotham County Library, Stephanie Brown researches her father's history, as both the Cluemaster and as Arthur Brown, host of the gameshow Quizbowl. She manages to dig up some archive video of a celebrity edition of the program benefiting the Zero Year reclamation fund, which included Bruce Wayne as a contestant. In that episode, Arthur Brown grew increasingly frustrated with a particular contestant's stupidity that he blew up on camera, causing scandal for himself. Back in Brazil, Gonzolo Dominguez seeks anywhere to hide in the TV studio, but his fame makes him stick out, and soon he is found by Batgirl, who shoves him into the green room and demands to know what his role was in the train crash that put her father in jail. He explains that he was not responsible. He merely owes money to the Club of Villains, and in order to pay them back, he allowed them to create a duplicate of his face, and put it on another man. Skilfully, Alfred sews up Julia's wound again, explaining that whatever she thinks of Mister Wayne, he loves Gotham, and wants nothing more than to see Carmine Falcone out of it. If the S.R.R. is keen, Julia can stay with Bruce and provide whatever she needs - and he can provide whatever help he needs to while accounting for lost time with his daughter. Stephanie has already suffered disillusionment about her parents, but the realization that her father is most certainly a super-villain, whose secret origin she has just discovered, is a cut above. He had been unemployed and broke, angry that the intellectually inferior got rich while he had to scrape by on food stamps. So, he became a thief calling himself the Cluemaster. He had been so sure he was smarter than everyone else that he left clues - and he was never caught until the Batman proved he was smarter with men like the Riddler, a villain who didn't leave clues. Still, Arthur always managed to escape with his secret identity intact, until the day he returned home and was caught once again. A young Stephanie had been wakened from her sleep by the sound of it, and saw the Batman threatening her father until he agreed to stop thieving. The Batman had been lenient, then, when he saw that Arthur had a family to provide for. By now, though, Stephanie knows that she had only been his alibi. He didn't care about her at all. Finally, Scorpiana crashes through the door, requiring Batgirl to think quickly. She smashes through the window of the upper-floor studio, dragging Dominguez with her. Seeing that he is covered with scorpions and insects, he begins swatting at them, accidentally wriggling free of Batgirl's grip. Fortunately for him, Red Hood had been instructed to follow Batgirl, and he sent Starfire to collect Dominguez, and take him to a safehouse in Belize. In the meantime, he delegated someone special to handle Scorpiana: none other than El Gaucho. Worriedly, Batgirl worries that her quarry has been taken from her, but Jason appears behind her, explaining that he has proof that Dominguez was in Bogota, in rehab during the train crash. He warns that she's too desperate to prove her father is innocent, and it's put her off her game - which is altogether too similar to his M.O. Meanwhile, at the Gotham Cemetery, Selina Kyle visits the grave of her lost friend Lola MacIntire, and discovers a sealed letter resting on it. To her surprise, it is from her father. In it, he exresses condolences for the loss of Lola, whom he had loved, once. He had trusted her to look out for Selina after his own family had failed him. Knowing how hard it must be to be alone in Gotham without Lola, he could do nothing more than hire someone to leave the letter on the grave in the hope that she would read it and understand that he still loves her, despite his absence. Having finished reading, she senses Batman standing behind her and begs him for a flame, with which she burns the letter. She turns to him and warns that he should stop worrying about her. She never had a daddy in the past, and sure as hell doesn't need one now. | Appearing1 = Featured Characters: * * * * Supporting Characters: * * * * * Antagonists: * * Other Characters: * Gonzolo Dominguez * Rick Pimento * London Leganza * Lola MacIntire * Brian Kyle Locations: * ** ** ** Gotham County Library * ** Items: * Vehicles: * | Notes = | Trivia = | Recommended = | Links = }}